Over 12,000 Hindus gather in Kashmir to celebrate Maha Kumbh

Srinagar, June 14 : About 12,000 Hindus, mostly migrant Kashmiri Pandits, on Tuesday gathered at the ‘Sangam’ (confluence) of the Jhelum river and Sindh stream in Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir to celebrate ‘Maha Kumbh’.

“Last time we had such alignment of celestial bodies was in 1941 and today after 75 years and 10 days the same celestial alignment is in place,” said Ashutosh Bhatnagar, 44, who had come from Delhi to take part in the Maha Kumbh though he is not a Kashmiri.

The Sangam at Saidipora village in Ganderbal has always been sacred to the local Pandit community for the immersion of the ashes of their dead, he said.

“Maha Kumbh is an event that the devotees could not miss and that is why we have come in such large numbers to be part of this auspicious occasion,” Bhatnagar said.

The Maha Kumbh this year has been declared by Omkar Nath Shastri, an astrologer whose family is known for publishing Panchang (Hindu almanac) for Kashmiris before the Pandit migration took place in early 1990s.